F 826 
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IIEF EPISODES IN THE 
HISTORY OF UTAH 

YOUNG 




Class'. 
Book.. 



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.Y8^ 



Copyright 1^^. 



CDPyRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



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CHIEF EPISODES IN THE 
HISTOKY OF UTAH 



BY 



LEVI EDGAR YOUNG 






CHICAGO 

THE LAKESIDE PRESS 

1912 



y?5 



Copyrighted 191 ■> 

BY 

LEVI KDGAR YOUNG 



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€\it fLakfBtUe Prtsa 

R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY 
CHICAGO 



gCI.A327284 



TO HARRIET AND JANE 



PREl ACR 



This little book is a collection of pen pictures of some of 
the important events in the history of Utah. They are writ- 
ten as they have been told to the children of the schools and 
to my own little girls who have sat and wondered at the trials 
and sorrows of their grandfathers and grandmothers. My 
hope is that they will inspire a love for history in the hearts 
of the children of this state. 

Being a grandnephew of the great Mormon leader, Brig- 
ham Young, I have had access to the most important mate- 
rial concerning the Mormon people. I feel a great desire to 
make use of this material in putting before the world a de- 
tailed study of the Mormons and their work. If the public 
enjoys these little sketches, I shall feel encouraged to tell at 
greater length the dramatic story of my people. 

LEVI EDGAR YOUNG. 

The UMVKRsn^ of Utah, 
August, 191 i>. 



CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 



BY LEVI EDGAR YOUNG 



FOUNDING OF SALT LAKE CITY 

The first permanent settlement in Utah was made at 
Salt Lake City by a band of Mormon Pioneers from the 
State of Illinois. This was July 24, 1847. During the 
winter of 1845-46 the Mormons were making extensive 
preparations to leave their city of Nauvoo, in the State of 
Illinois, and to make homes somewhere in the Far West. 
Their leader had been killed, their property ruined by people 
not of their religious faith, and, convinced that they could 
not make a home in Illinois, they had but one recourse — 
they could move to new lands farther west. Could one have 
looked into a typical Mormon home in Nauvoo during its 
last months of life and activity, he would have seen the 
women making tents and wagon covers, stockings and bed- 
clothes; and the men busy preparing timber for wagons and 
gathering all kinds of old iron for horseshoes and wagon 
tires. The Mormons collected all the wheat, corn, bacon, 
and potatoes that they could, and exchanged their land for 
cattle, horses and wagons. On February 10, 1846, the 
first teams crossed the Mississippi and in a few weeks 
Nauvoo was deserted. 

The Mormons slowly wended their way across the ter- 
ritory of Iowa and established Winter Quarters on the 
banks of the Missouri, nearly opposite Council Bluffs. 
Here they sojourned during the winter of 1846-47. They 

7 



8 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 

built seven hundred log cabins and one hundred fifty dugouts. 
Even during that winter they maintained a school. At 
Winter Quarters and Kanesville, the two chief camps on the 
Missouri, about twelve thousand people were gathered 
during that winter. Many died of cold and hunger, for the 
season was severe; but the thing most feared, Indian hostil- 
ity, was averted and they could still thank God that affairs 
were not so bad as they might have been. 

The first company of pioneers under Brigham Young left 
Winter Quarters in April, 1847. There were one hundred 
forty-three men, three women and two children. They 
struck off due west and upon reaching the Platte River 
continued along its north bank. Until they reached the 
foothills of the Rockies they traveled a level, grassy country. 
The company was well organized. Every morning at five 
o'clock the bugle was sounded to awaken the camp. All 
assembled for prayers, then took breakfast, and the second 
bugle was sounded when the company began the march. 
They traveled about twenty miles each day and at seven 
o'clock evening prayers were said, after which the "brethren 
and sisters" gathered around the fire and sang songs, accom- 
panied by the band which Brigham Young had organized 
at Winter Quarters. Every Sabbath day was strictly ob- 
served. In June they reached the Black Hills and Fort 
Laramie. From here they followed the Oregon trail through 
South Pass to Fort Bridger. Here they were given some idea 
of the kind of country in the vicinity of the Great Salt 
Lake, but as to the fertility of the soil everyone was doubtful. 
From Fort Bridger the party went through Echo and 
Emigration to Salt Lake Valley. Orson Pratt, Erastus Snow 
and others were sent ahead and entered the valley of the 
Great Salt Lake July 21st. They explored some parts, and 
on the 23d staked off land and turned the waters of City 
Creek onto the soil. This was the beginning of irrigation in 




HRIGHAM YOUNG 



10 



CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 



the West. The main company under Brigham Young 
arrived July 24th, and it is out of respect for him and the 
main company that this day is taken as Utah's natal day. 

It is interesting to read some of the accounts written at 
this time concerning the journey of the pioneers and the 
settlement of Utah. Among the most interesting journals 




THE PIONEERS IN ECHO CANYON 



are those of Erastus Snow, Wilford Woodruff and Orson 
Pratt. The following is a short extract from the journal of 
Erastus Snow: 

"Monday, August 2, Brother Henry Sherwood commenced 
surveying the city and the public square in the southwest part 
was selected for the fortress. This week I was detailed to take charge 
of herding all our stock and seven men were selected for herdsmen. 
Others were set to watering fields and sowing our turnips. Others 
were to get out timber for log houses and a strong company was 



FOUMJlNCi OK SALT LAKE CITY 



11 



oj-fz;anized to make adobes. To those unacquainted with adobe 
buildings, I will say that they are very common in New Mexico 
and other sparsely timbered countries. Adobes are bricks made of 




SCENE IN EARLY UTAH 




SCENE IN MODERN UTAH 



12 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 

gravel and soil and dried hard in the sun instead of being burned 
with fuel." 

The pioneers settled on the present site of Salt Lake City. 
The first camp was made about where the Knutsford build- 
ing now stands at the corner of Third, South and State 
Streets on the banks of a fork of City Creek. On Sunday, 
the 25th of July, all the people assembled for religious wor- 
ship. During the first week some exploring was done, and 
by August 26th eighty-four acres of land had been plowed 
and planted in corn, potatoes, beans, buckwheat and turnips. 
A city was laid out and surveyed. At a conference held 
August 22d, it was decided to call the town Great Salt 
Lake City. Those were busy days. The men made adobes, 
built a stockade which they called the Old Fort, hauled 
timber from the canyons and made plows and harrows. The 
three women were kept very busy cooking. 

Wilford Woodruff says in his journal: 

''We have accomplished more this year than can be found on 
record concerning an equal number of men in the same time since 
the days of Adam. We have traveled with heavily laden wagons 
more than a thousand miles over rough roads, through mountains 
and canyons; searching out a land as a resting place for the saints. 
We have laid out a city two miles square and built a fort of hewn 
timber and of sun dried bricks or adobes. This fort encloses ten 
acres of ground, forty rods of which are covered with block houses." 

After the first company, headed by Brigham Young, left 
for the Rocky Mountains, extensive preparations were 
made for others to follow. The ''First Lnmigration," 
so-called, consisted of 1,553 souls under the command of 
Parley P. Pratt. It left Winter Quarters July 4, 1847. The 
people were well organized into companies of 100 wagons, 
these again into companies of fifty and ten respectively, 
each with its captain or commander. There were 580 
wagons, 2,213 oxen, 124 horses, 887 cows, 358 sheep, 35 hogs, 



FOUNDINC; OF SAI/r LAKK CITY 



13 



and 716 chickens. This company arrived in Salt Lake City 
on September 19th. By the end of the year, some 4,000 
people had settled in the valley of the Great Salt Lake. 

In one of the old Juvenile Instructors, you will find a 
good description of the first winter in Salt Lake City, written 
by one who experienced its hardships. He says: 



'•V 




RIO GRANDE DEPOT, SALT LAKE CITY 



"The pioneers after their arrival laid the foundation of a fort 
and erected a number of houses which they left for those who came 
in after them to occupy. Some of these were constructed of adobe, 
others of logs. The adobes were much longer than is the fashion 
now. They were eighteen inches long and proportionately wide 
and thick. The fort was called the Old Fort and it stood on what 
is now known as the Sixth Ward Stiuare.^ When the companies 
which followed the pioneers came into the valley, additions were 
made to the south and north of the fort, which were called the 
South and North Forts. They were connected with the Old Fort 

^This is the park near the Rio Grande depot now called Pioneer 
Square, 



14 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 

by gates and each of them had gates through which the people 
went to and from then' fields. The houses were built close together 
with the highest wall on the outside. This formed the wall of the 
fort. The roofs sloped toward the inside and all the doors and 
windows were on the inside so as to make the houses more secure 




JOHN CRISMON'S GRIST MILL 
Where the Lafayette School Now Standi^ 



against attack. Not having had any experience in this climate, 
and supposing from the appearance of the ground in the summer and 
fall that it was very dry, they made the roofs of the houses very 
flat. The result was that nearly every house leaked during the 
first winter. But that first winter was a mild one, which was most 
fortunate for the people, for neither their food nor their clothing 
was of such a character as to enable them to endure very cold 
weather. Many were without shoes and the best covering they 
could get for their feet were moccasins. Their clothing, too, was 



THE GULLS 15 

almost exhausted and the skins of the goat, deer and elk which they 
could procure were most acceptable for clothing, though far from 
pleasant to wear in the rain or snow." 

It was a winter of hard work and careful planning. Flour 
was doled out by weight to each family, sago and thistle 
roots were eaten, and now and then the hunters brought in 
a little meat. Those who were in want had to be helped, 
but everyone was willing to share with his neighbor. In 
the late autumn of 1847, Charles Crismon built a gristmill 
on City Creek and the wheat brought to the valley by the 
immigrants was ground; but there was no bolting cloth, so 
the bran and shorts had to be eaten with the flour. 

Says one of the pioneers: 

"The beef used during the winter was generally very poor. 
Most of the cattle had reached the valley late in the season, and 
then had to be worked hard to prepare for winter. Of course, 
they had no chance to improve in flesh. Butter and tallow were 
in consequence very scarce, and the people craved them. There 
was nothing that could contribute to sustain hfe that was wilfully 
allowed to go to waste. If an ox mired and was too poor to get 
out he was killed and his carcass used for food. Big gray wolves 
came down from the mountains in March, 1848, and killed several 
of the cattle which were feeding on the east bench in sight of the 
fort. Those parts of the meat which the wolves had not torn were 
used for food." 

THE GULLS 

The winter finally passed and in the spring of 1848 the 
pioneers planted five thousand acres of wheat. The pros- 
pects were good for a big harvest and the people were very 
happy. The plowing and planting had been done with care. 
Immigrants were arriving from the east almost every day, 
and their souls were touched with gladness as they looked 



■\ 



16 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 

for the first time upon the ''land of promise." A large tract 
of land had been sown to wheat that it might at harvest 
time be gathered into a general storehouse for the use of the 
people in time of need. Much rain fell during the spring, 
and the indication for a fruitful yield could not have been 
better. 

During the last week in May, however, a report became 
prevalent that black crickets were attacking the wheat 
fields just north of the city. At first the rumor caused little 
commotion, but within a week the crickets had spread to 
neighboring fields and in a few days the devouring horde 
swept over the entire valley, leaving neither blade nor leaf 
in their path. Men and women turned out en masse to 

^ght the pest, driving them into ditches or burning them 
upon piles of reeds, striving in every way to beat back the 
devouring host; but all in vain. The black pest increased 
as days went on. A terrible fear swept through the hearts 
of the people. The women and children cried with fright. 
Hundreds of immigrants were expected that summer, and 
as a rule they reached the valley with very little food. If 

^his crop were destroyed they must all starve. A day of 
prayer and fasting was appointed, for the people had great 
faith in God. 

What happened then has been regarded as a miracle ever 
since by large numbers of the people of Utah. From the 

Chores and islands of the Great Salt Lake came the gulls, 
myriads of these snow-white birds, with wild cries winging 
their way. A new fear arose in the minds of the people as 
they saw the birds alight in their fields, a fear that another 
foe had come to complete the destruction of their growing 
grain. Their joy may be imagined when they saw the gulls 
pounce upon the black crickets and gorge themselves, return- 
ing again and again to the repast. The people gazed in 

^amazement upon the birds and their beneficent work. No 



THE FORTY-NINERS 17 

wonder it seemed to them a sheer miracle from heaven, a 
direct and convincing answer to their prayers. For siJ^ 
days the destruction went on, and on the evening of the 
sixth day, which was Sunday, these winged deUverers quietly 
flew back to their island homes in the bosom of the Great/ 
Salt Lake. 

To this day the people of Utah are grateful to the birds. 
Indeed, the State Legislature has passed a law forbidding 
anyone to harm a gull. Just as the eagle is the emblem of our 
country, so the gull is the emblem of our state. As the eagle,; 
stands on our national shield, so the gull appears on the 
main piece of the great silver service given by the state for 
use on the battleship Utah. 

The crops had not been entirely saved, so the following"^ 
winter was a starving time for the people. They were put 
upon short rations and many were reduced to such straits 
that they dug roots for food and boiled them together with 
hides that had been used for roofing the cabins. In Feb- 
ruary, 1849, the bishops of the various wards took an 
inventory of the bread stuffs in the valley and officially 
reported that there was little more than three-fourths of a 
pound for each inhabitant. But despite the suffering no one 
died of starvation, and no one grew disheartened. 

THE FORTY-NINERS 

To the settlers of Utah, the migration of the gold-seekers 
to California was a boon and blessing. They brought 
boots and shoes, carts and wagons, ginghams and woolen 
goods, which they sold cheap to lighten their load on the 
last hard stage of the long j ourney . They bought horses of the 
settlers, paying as much as two hundred dollars for a horse 
or mule that before their coming there was no market for 
at all. The Frontier Guardian says: 



18 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 

''For a light Yankee wagon sometimes three or four heavy ones 
would be given in exchange, and a 3^oke of oxen would be thrown 
in at that. Common domestic sheeting sold from five to ten cents 
per yard by the bolt. The best of spades and shovels sold for 
fifty cents each. Vests that cost one dollar and fifty cents in St. 
Louis were sold at Salt Lake for thirty-seven and a half cents. 
Full chests of ioiners' tools which sold in the East for one hundred 




EMIGRANTS PASSING THROUGH SALT LAKE CITY 



fifty dollars were sold in Salt Lake for twenty-five dollars. Indeed, 
almost every article could be bought at a price fifty per cent below 
the wholesale price in eastern cities." 

Again, it seems Providential that just when the resources 
of the Utah pioneers were at the lowest ebb, when they most 
needed help, these emigrants on the way to California should 
flock to their city, eager to dispose of the very goods thai, 
the pioneers most needed. Many enterprising eastern men, 



THE HANDCART COMPANIES 19 

upon hearing of the influx to the gold fields of California, 
determined to go there and took with them large stocks of 
merchandise for which they expected a ready sale in the new 
gold camps. They little realized the hardships of the jour- 
ney, and, upon reaching Salt Lake and discovering that the 
hardest part of the trip was still ahead of them, they were 
glad to dispose of their stock for anything that it would 
bring. Particularly were they anxious to obtain mules and 
horses, the very things that the Utah people could best 
spare. In the churches of that time, many a fervent thanks- 
giving went up to God for the aid that had been brought to 
the people by the Forty-Niners. 

THE HANDCART COMPANIES 

One of the saddest episodes in the history of Utah is the 
story of the Handcart Companies. Every year thousands 
of people from Europe and America gathered at the Missouri 
River points enroute to Utah. There was the center of 
their church organization which to them was Zion. To Zion 
they would go in spite of everything. How to bring so 
many people across the plains was a problem. There was 
not money enough to provide transportation by wagon for 
such a multitude, so Governor Young hit upon a unique 
plan. In a letter of 1855 to FrankUn D. Richards, he says: 

"I have been thinking how we shall operate another year. 
We cannot afford to purchase wagons and teams as in times past. 
I am consequently thrown back upon my old plan — to make 
handcarts and let the emigration foot it, drawing with them the 
necessary supplies and having a cow or two for every ten. They 
can come just as quick, if not quicker and much cheaper. Since 
they will not have to wait for the grass to grow, they can start 
earlier and escape the prevailing sickness of mid-summer which 
annually lays so many of our brethren in the dust. A great 



20 



CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 



majority of them walk now even with the teams that are provided 
and have a great deal more care and perplexity than they would 
have if they came without teams. They will need only ninety 
days rations from the time of their leaving the Missouri River. 
Indeed, since settlements now extend up the Platte, less will suffice. 
The carts can be made hght and strong, without a particle of iron, 
and one, or if the family be large, two of them, will bring all that 
the family will need upon the plains." 




■fP'UT.. 



MAIN STREET IN ISGO 



The plan was put into operation in the spring of 1856 
and worked well for those companies that started early 
enough to reach Salt Lake City before winter. In the 
early autumn of 1856, three large companies of nearly 500 
people each, arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake. 
They had tramped more than 1,300 miles from Iowa City to 
Salt Lake City, drawing their supplies in handcarts. Chil- 
dren, as well as their fathers and mothers, walked, and 
many of them had neither shoes nor stockings during the 
latter part of the journey. For pluck and endurance this 
is a record that has never been equaled. 



THE HANDCART COMPANIES 21 

Five companies in all undertook the journey that first 
year; but the two that started latest had a dreadful time. 
James G. Willie commanded one and Edward Martin the 
other. They had been delayed in leaving the Missouri 
River and were caught in the piercing blasts of winter on 
the Platte and the Sweetwater. Many of the emigrants 
little realized the length of the journey to Utah and for this 
reason they were ill prepared to face the rigor of winter on 
the plains. Some of the handcarts broke down; sickness 
and lack of proper food dispirited the marchers and the 
knowledge that they were far from Zion disheartened many 
of the women and children. Thinly clad and poorly fed they 
labored on and on and when they were put upon half rations 
before more than half the journey was completed, despair 
seized them. The company under Edward Martin made a 
camp in a ravine between the Platte and the Sweetwater 
in the latter part of October. Food became so scarce that 
the marrowless bones picked up from the prairie were 
boiled for soup. Says one of the survivors of that company: 

''I cried for bread and meat every day, but nothing could be 
given me to soothe the gnawings of my hunger." 

To understand why the earlier companies suffered less 
from lack of food than those which crossed the plains in the 
fall, you must recall that the buffalo was a migratory animal, 
starting from Texas and the Southland as early as grass 
appeared in the spring and grazing northward all summer. 
At the time when the first three companies crossed the plains 
the buffalo herds were there. Indeed, they were sometimes 
so numerous as to impede the progress of the pilgrims. But 
by the time the companies of Willie and Martin came the 
buffaloes had moved northward to their fafNj:;ange in 
Montana. This explains why the great plains would be 
teeming with animal life when one traveler crossed them 



22 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 

and absolutely bare of game when another made the 
journey. 

The October Conference was in session at Salt Lake City 
when Brigham Young received word of the sufferings of the 
emigrants on the plains. He immediately sent a company of 
the strongest men with wagons and supplies under the 




BEE HIVE HOUSE AND EAGLE GATE IN 185'J 



command of Joseph A. Young. This rescue party found 
the two companies in a most miserable condition, fed them 
and brought them to Salt Lake. That is, they brought in 
the survivors, for two hundred fifty of those devoted pil- 
grims had died on the plains. Nearly all the deaths that 
must be charged against the handcart scheme were suffered 
by these two companies. During the four years extending 
from 1856 to 1860 more than four thousand^ emigrants 
crossed the plains in this manner and the total number of 
deaths was less than three hundred. 

We who have never suffered greatly may sit in our com- 



SPREADING OUT 23 

fortable homes and moralize about the fanaticism that could 
impel men to take their wives and children on a tramp of 
thirteen hundred miles over deserts and mountains infested 
with savages and traversed by dangerous streams. Espe- 
cially is it marvelous that any would dare to attempt such 
a journey with such simple equipment. But we must all 
admit that their simple faith in the watchful care of their 
Heavenly Father is an admirable thing and worthy of imi- 
tation. Let us also remember that all great achievements 
have as their motor power some such sublime faith. Finally, 
it is certain that the handcart experiment would have been 
a success had common sense been permitted to temper their 
zeal and to keep at Iowa City until the following spring the 
two companies that did not get ready to start in time to 
complete the journey before winter. 

SPREADING OUT 

From an epistle issued at Salt Lake City by Brigham 
Young in March, 1849, we quote the following: 

''We are about to establish a colony of about thirty families in 
the Utah Valley, about fifty miles south. We hope soon to explore 
the valleys three hundred miles south and also the country as far 
as the Gulf of California with a view to settlement and to acquiring 
a seaport." 

This gives the keynote to the expanding policy of the 
Mormon leader. Every fertile valley was to be settled, even 
to the seacoast. Almost every fertile valley of what is 
now Utah was settled by families picked by Brigham Young 
for that task. From north to south in a straight line along 
the western foot of the Wasatch Range and the High Plateau 
settlements stretched from Richmond to St. George. In 
every case Brigham Young directed the settlement and 
picked the families. Little was left to chance. Just as to-day 



24 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 

in starting a new herd the careful farmer will take none but 
thoroughbreds, so Brigham Young in founding the infant 
settlements, carefully selected the best and strongest for 
the pioneer work. Probably no less rigorous policy would 
have succeeded. No weaklings could conquer the desert, 
the Indians, the wild animals, the extremes of climate, 




WHERE THE UTAH HOTEL NOW STANDS 



and stay in those lonely valleys, hundreds of miles from 
the nearest white settlement, long enough to bring water 
upon the land and change the desert into the oases that 
these settlements are to-day. Colonists went clear into the 
northeast, where Green River sweeps around the eastern 
escarpment of the Uinta Mountains, and founded Vernal, 
Ashley and Jensen, where Ashley and his old trappers were 
wont to revel. Strangest of all, Francis Hammond, at the 
direction of Brigham Young, dared to lead ten families 
away to the southeast across Grand River and to settle 



SPREADING OUT 



25 



among the sand dunes and l)ox canyons of the San Juan. 
There his descendants are to-day, rich in herds and happy in 
tlieir Hinitless domain. 




THE UTAH HOTEL, SALT LAKE CITY 



Brigham Young directed the colonizing of the valleys of 
Utah and, coming as he did from New England, he under- 
stood full well the old English form of village or town govern- 
ment. The old English town was the most democratic and 
best form of local government known in the world. The 
people used to meet in their meeting house and discuss all 
affairs pertaining to the town. At these town meetings the 
citizens determined what schoolhouses should be built, 
what fences should be made, what canals should be dug, what 
bridges should be constructed. They also elected officers 



26 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 

to oversee the affairs of the town. Each citizen had a vote. 
It was a pure democracy. It was peculiarly like the old 
Puritan town meeting of New England in that no distinct 
line was drawn between religious and civil affairs. The 
same meeting might vote to build a schoolhouse and a 
church, or to discipline a back-sliding church member or 
a town official. This is always likely to be the case when 
the entire community is of one religious faith, particularly 
when they are developing a new country. In most parts 
of Utah there is still more connection between religious and 
civic matters than in other sections of the country; but the 
old simple days when they were attended to in the same meet- 
ing or mixed up in the same resolution, have disappeared 
with the pioneer conditions. 

Like all people who build homes in a new country, the 
Mormons had to make laws and form a government for 
themselves. Since they had children to educate and were 
chiefly engaged in farming, their first laws pertained to 
schools, water supply, roads and bridges. The first act 
passed by the Legislative Assembly of the Provisional State 
of Deseret was one levying a tax for the building of roads and 
bridges and the second act provided for the establishment 
of schools. As early as 1850, the University of Deseret was 
established by an act of the Legislative Assembly. How- 
ever, the people were poor and there were many demands 
on their scanty funds, so the University had a precarious 
and checkered career for several years. It was housed 
at one time in a private residence and at another in the old 
Council House, which stood where the Deseret News Build- 
ing is now. In 1870, it took up the Old Wilkins Hotel as 
its abode, which it abandoned in 1881 for buildings of its 
own. These buildings are now used by the Salt Lake 
High School and the Old Wilkins Hotel has become a knitting 
factory. The State University of Utah with a campus of 



SPREADING OUT 



27 



00 acres, several good buildings, over a thousand students, 
a teaching staff of more than fifty and a large permanent 
endowment is the successor of the old University of Deseret. 
The name was changed in 1892. 

You must remember that this land belonged to Mexico 
at the time when the Mormons settled here. It was ceded 




OLD COUNCIL HOUSE WHERE DESERET NEWS BUILDING NOW STANDS 



to the United States in 1848 as a result of the Mexican War. 
Congress was slow to organize this remote land into a ter- 
ritory and to give it a regular government; so the people had 
to make a provisional government of their own. They 
organized the State of Deseret, copying the legislative, 
executive and judicial offices with which they had become 
familiar in the eastern states; and asked Congress to admit 
this new state to the Union. Congress, however, instead 
of granting their petition, organized the Territory of Utah, 



28 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 

in 1850, and Brigham Young, who had been elected by the 
people Governor of the Provisional State of Deseret, was 
appointed by President Fillmore Governor of the new 
Territory of Utah. 



WARS AND RUMORS OF WAR 

The policy of Brigham Young and the early settlers of 
Utah in dealing wdth the Indians was modeled on that of 
William Penn and the Quakers. Brigham Young said: 

''It is better to feed the Indians than to fight them," 
and this policy w^as followed quite generally. What trouble 
occurred was the result of friction between hotheads, both 
white and red. The leaders on both sides deprecated war 
and on all but two occasions avoided serious trouble. Chief 
Washakie of the Shoshones once told the United States 
Indian Commissioner that the Mormons would share for- 
ever the Happy Hunting Grounds of the Indians; ''for," 
said he, "they feed us instead of fighting us." 

The first great trouble came in 1853 and lasted for almost 
two years. It is known as the Walker War. Walker was 
a chief of the Utes who, with his brother, Arropine, and a 
numerous band was encamped at the mouth of Payson 
Canyon in July, 1853. The Indians ranged far, fishing and 
hunting, and one day a small party of them caught some 
fish in Spring Creek just outside of Springville. A squaw 
entered the cabin of a settler on Spring Creek and proceeded 
to barter some fish for some flour. The wife of the settler 
gave her about two pounds of flour for the fish — a small 
price for today, but we must remember that white flour was 
a luxury then. When the squaw showed her bargain to her 
lord and master, he knocked her down and beat her shame- 
fully. The settler could not bear to see even an Indian 
woman abused, so he interfered and whipped the brave. 



WARS AND RUiMORS OF WAR 29 

The squaw meanwhile got up, seized a hatchet, and struck 
the white man a vicious blow on the head. At this critical 
moment two Indians came running up, one of whom had a 
gun. While he maneuvered to get into position to shoot the 
white man without hurting the Indian, the settler grasped 
the gun barrel. In the struggle that followed the old gun 
broke, the Indian keeping the stock, the white man, the 
barrel. With this he laid around him so strenuously that 
he killed one brave and put the rest to flight. They fled 
to W^alker's camp, told of the trouble, clamored for ven- 
geance, awakened the slumbering savagery of their comrades 
and Walker had no choice but to lead his angry bands to 
war. 

For almost two years next following there was little 
planting or harvesting from Springville south. Payson 
was deserted. Nephi was in a state of siege. Spring City 
was destroyed. The people of Mt. Pleasant flocked to 
Ephraim for the protection of its fort. Manti became the 
center of operations for the whites. There gathered the 
bands of fighters and thence they proceeded to raid the 
strongholds of the Indians and drive them from the valleys. 
There was no pitched battle. It was a war of ambuscade 
and surprisal. The bands of white men were worn out 
chasing Indians that would not stand and fight like men. 
How the women and children felt is shown by the quaint 
statement of one of the women of Ephraim: 

''We were afraid to -go to lied at night for fear that we should 
wake up dead in the morning." 

Brigham Young, who had great insight into Indian 
character and knew many of the secrets of Indian free- 
masonry and totem symbolism, met the Ute chiefs, Kanosh, 
Walker and Arropine, in council in 1854, and made a treaty 
of peace. But peace could not restore the hundreds of 



30 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 



fields, fences, houses, barns, and ditches that had been 
destroyed; the thousands of cattle, sheep, horses, hogs and 
chickens that had been lost; or the score of good men that 

had been killed. 
The development 
of Southern Utah 
was retarded by at 
least ten years by 
that year and a 
half of rapine. All 
that the Indians 
gained were a few 
presents given to 
their chiefs to bind 
the bargain. The 
V hites gained San- 
pitch (Sanpete) 
\'alley, which was 
made over to 
Brigham Young by 
C hief Arropine at 
tlie close of the 
war. 

The second great 

trouble was caused 

b\y the attempt of 

the United States 

Government to 

drive the Utes onto 

a reservation. It is 

known as the Black 

Hawk War, because the Ute chief, Black Hawk, was the 

main disturber. In 1865 the most prominent Ute chiefs 

signed a treaty with the United States Commissioner agree- 




CHIEF TAB^y— OLDEST CHIEF IN UXUED 

STATES. BEEN CHIEF FOR 73 YEARS 

—AGE 105 YEARS 



WARS AND RUMORS OF WAR 31 

ing to give up their claims to all other lands in Utah and 
to move to the Uinta Valley. The United States agreed 
that here they might hunt and fish and trade freely and 
that schools should be established for their children. Both 
Kanosh and Tabby, the two head chiefs, signed this treaty; 
but Black Hawk incited his bands to war, and during 




VETERANS OF THE BLACK HAWK WAR— GARFIELD COAST BRIGADE 

the two years, from 1865 to 1867, the Indian depreda- 
tions in the southern part of the territory were the worst 
in our history. They raided the farms, killed the colonists, 
and drove off hundreds of horses and cattle. Bands of 
hardy volunteers met them in the open, chased them in- 
to their canyon strongholds, guarded the settlements and 
served as scouts for the militia and the regulars from Fort 
Douglas. It was a hard struggle, but the Indians were 
finally subdued and all of the Utes driven to the Uinta 
Reservation. Here the ' United States Government built 



32 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 

Fort Duchesne and established there a military post to 
patrol the reservation. This was recently abandoned when 
the opening of the reservation to settlement made the 
Indian post no longer necessary. 

The coming of Johnston's army was the most distressing 
episode in the early history of Utah. It threatened to blight 
the budding state, but it, too, turned out to be a blessing in 
disguise. That you may understand how the trouble 
arose between the people of Utah and the Government of 
the United States, you must see clearly the great difference 
that exists between a territory and a state. You must 
remember that whereas the people of a state govern them- 
selves, the people of a territory are ruled from Washington. 
The people of a state elect their own governor and judges. 
The people of a territory have their governor and judges 
imposed upon them by appointment of the President of the 
United States and their consent is not even asked. Some- 
times the President will appoint to these high offices residents 
of the territory, as President Fillmore did in 1850; but more 
often these offices are given to some outside politician as 
payment for political services. When this is the case the 
highest offices in the territory are liable to be held by stran- 
gers who know little and care less about the people whom 
they rule. Every Western territory has suffered from this 
system. Oregon had a heart-breaking experience and 
Montana, in the early days, was more than once on the 
verge of anarchy. The alien governor and judges despised 
the wild Westerner as an uncouth boor; and the Western 
settler looked upon the alien ruler as a carpet-bagger. This 
was a very unfortunate situation and led to trouble in most 
of the Western territories but most of all in Utah. 

Both sides were frequently rash and hot-headed. In 
those days religious differences led to rancor, unknown in 
our more liberal or less earnest time. Furthermore, there 



WARS AND RUMORS OF WAR 33 

was, during the Fifties, a spirit of suspicion and distrust 
throughout the entire land. Slavery troubles had led to 
open war in Kansas and chief among the pro-slavery men 
were the Missourians with whom the Mormons had had 
serious trouble a generation earlier. When President 
Buchanan appointed officers for Utah who were antagonistic 
to the people of Utah, both in religion and politics, the result 
could be only disorder. Such officials could not meet the 
people in a friendly spirit and the people did not and could 
not treat the officials with the respect due to their high office. 
President Buchanan's judges were not in sympathy with 
some of the laws enacted by the people of Utah. There 
were some blue laws on the statute books which we should 
not think of passing today and which have no counterpart 
except in the blue laws of the Puritans of Massachusetts. 
There was one, for example, that made a man liable to a 
fine of twenty-five dollars for swearing. Some of the 
institutions, too, were peculiar and would not be upheld by 
the judges from the East. The Federal officers assumed a 
dictatorial tone which angered the people of Utah. Was 
not this their land, rescued by them from the desert and the 
savage at the price of blood and extreme hardship? Should 
they sit supinely by and see their independence trodden 
down by an upstart aUen? Such hot counsels on both sides 
precipitated an open rupture between the Federal judges 
and the people of Utah. The judges found that it became 
increasingly difficult to exact the usual deference to the 
processes of law. The people, who had been perfectly 
docile while the law was administered by their own elected 
officers, now looked upon the procedure of the courts as so 
many shackles cunningly forged and put into the hands of 
strangers to bind them. The chasm widened. Governor 
Young took the side of his people. The judges called for 
his removal and claimed that the people of Utah had burned 



34 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 

the court records and put themselves in a state of rebelhon. 
President Buchanan upheld his judges, deposed Governor 
Young, appointed an Indiana man, Alfred Gumming, his 
successor, and sent General Albert Sidney Johnston with an 
army of twenty-five hundred men to put down the ''rebel- 
lion" in Utah. 

The army left Fort Leavenworth in the spring of 1857, 
with more than two thousand head of cattle, hundreds of 
government wagons and thousands of pounds of rations. 
When the people received word of its approach, all was 
consternation. Governor Young assured the people that 
no harm should come to them and they organized an army 
for defense, which was placed under the command of Captain 
Lott Smith. He marched to Echo Canyon and fortified 
that defile, then went on to Green River and burned many of 
the wagons of the army. He carried hostilities no further. 
The army went into winter quarters at Fort Bridger. Before 
it resumed the forward march, Governor Gumming, who 
was a level-headed man, proceeded to Salt Lake City and 
met Brigham Young. In this interview the Mormon leader 
was assured that no harm should come to his people should 
they move back to their homes. Over 30,000 people had 
moved from Salt Lake City and the northern settlements, 
into the southern valleys, most of them stopping at Provo. 
This was during the winter of 1857-58. Their sufferings 
had been great and their sorrows almost beyond description. 
A survivor of that march, still living in Salt Lake City, 
who was then eleven years of age, says : 

"We packed all we had in father's one wagon and waited for the 
command to leave. At night we lay down to sleep not knowing 
when word would come of the army which we thought was coming 
to destroy us. Mother went about the house placing everything 
in order and mending every bit of clothing we could find, for we 
knew that the time would come when we mig|^t be in great need of 



WARS AND RUMORS OF WAR 35 

food and clothing. There were seven of us children in the family. 
We put away all our playthings, for the days found us so frightened 
that all we did was to follow father and mother from place to place, 
looking into their faces for a word of comfort and a look of cheer. 
One morning father told us that we should leave with a large com- 
pany in the evening. He said little more. There was packing and 
the making of bread. Along in the middle of the day father scat- 
tered leaves and straw in all the rooms and through my tears I 
heard him say 'Never mind, little daughter, this home has shel- 
tered us, it shall never shelter them.' I did not understand him 
then, but as we went out of the yard and joined all the other 
people on the main road I learned for the first time that the city 
was to be burned should the approaching army attack the people. 
That night we camped on Willow Creek in the south end of the 
Valley and at ten o'clock every soul with bowed head knelt in 
prayer to God. As I dropped to sleep I heard my mother whisper- 
ing that the Lord had heard our prayers and that our homes 
should not be burned. I cried and cried, but at last I dropped to 
sleep." 

Peace came to the people. The army never molested 
them. It marched through Salt Lake City, without stop- 
ping, to Cedar Valley, about forty-five miles southwest, 
where it built Camp Floyd. During the two years that the 
soldiers stayed there, Camp Floyd was a fine market for 
the Mormon farmers. Governor Gumming took the oath 
of office and was beloved by the people. Many of the 
large wagons brought by the soldiers, together with har- 
nesses and other useful equipment, were sold to the people 
for hay and flour. In fact, when the army left Utah to 
return to the East the people parted with them reluctantly 
and some of the soldiers deserted and remained in the 
territory. In Bancroft's History of Utah you will find the 
following interesting passage : 

"During the march of the army, not a house was disturbed, not 
a citizen molested; and during its sojourn of over two years in the 



36 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 

territory, instances were rare indeed of gross misconduct on the 
part of the soldiery. The Mormons, who had been eager to fight 
the troops, were now thankful for their arrival. Many of the 
settlers were still very poor. They had a few cattle and a few 
implements of husbandry but little else of this world's goods, save 
their farms and dwellings. They were ill-clad and poorly fed, their 
diet consisting of preparations of corn, flour and milk, with beet 
molasses, and the fruits and vegetables of their gardens. Now 
they had an opportunity to exchange the products of their fields 
and dairies for clothing and for such luxuries as tea, coffee, sugar 
and tobacco." 



LIFE BEFORE THE RAILROAD CAME 

There were good roads in Utah even before the railroads 
came. You will remember that the old Spanish Trail from 
Santa Fe and Taos to Southern California, ran through 
Utah. After crossing Green River from the east, it divided, 
one branch running through Spanish Fork Canyon to Utah 
Valley and Lake, and the other through Emery Canyon to 
Sevier Valley and Lake. Thence it ran southwestward to 
Southern California. Just as the Spaniards used this trail 
to drive horses and mules from California to their ranches 
in New Mexico, so the Mormon Pioneers traveled it to and 
from California. They drove great freight outfits over it, 
for the merchants of Salt Lake City had much of their 
freight come by ship to San Bernardino, whence it was 
conveyed by wagon more than one thousand miles to Salt 
Lake City. Much of the stock for the Utah ranches came 
over this old trail from Southern California. There was a 
Mormon colony at San Bernardino which was established 
about the same time that Salt Lake City was founded. 
Many men still live in Utah who can tell you thrilling stories 
of adventure on the old trail, and narrow escapes from 
death through starvation, thirst or Indian attack. State 



LIFE BEFORE THE RAILROAD CAME 



37 



Street in Salt Lake City is the northern end of a great road 
that ran southward through Utah Valley, Nephi Canyon 
and Sanpete Valley to merge with the old trail in Sevier 
Valley. This was the great State Road and before the 
railroads came it was the main artery of commerce. 

The Oregon trail proper ran almost two hundred miles 




MAIN STREET. SALT LAKE CITY, IN 1861 



north of Salt Lake City; but from its earUest history its 
chief branch was the Salt Lake trail, which ran from Fort 
Bridger through Echo and Emigration Canyons to the Salt 
Lake Valley. After the rush to California began, this be- 
came by far the most used trail. Indeed, after 1848, so 
large a part of the travel over the great trail had Salt Lake 
City for its objective, that the name Oregon Trail fell into 
disuse and the road from the Missouri River to the Far 
West came to be known as the Salt Lake Trail, or the Over- 
land Trail. Over this road came most of the supplies for 
the Utah towns and many men still live in our state who 



38 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 

spent the entire summer making a single trip to the Missouri 
River and back. Now we can reach Omaha in thirty hours. 
Not only freight but passengers came in wagons over the 
great trail. The Overland Stage, carrying mail and pas- 
sengers, was duly advertised in the Deseret News as follows: 




TRESTLE 235 FEET HIGH, BINGHAM AND GARFIELD RAILWAY 



LIFE BEFORE THE RAILROAD CAME 39 

"Mail and passenger coaches between Independence and Salt 
Lake City will leave Hawkins Hotel in Great Salt Lake City and the 
Noland House in Independence on the first day of each month 
at eight a. m., stopping a short time at the following way stations, 
viz: Fort Bridger, Green River, Devil's Gate, Fort Laramie, Ash 
Hollow, Fort Kearney and Big Blue. Every facility and attention 
will be extended the passengers to render their trip speedy and 
comfortable. For further particulars, apply to the agents." 

Salt Lake City was the center whence radiated freight 
and stage lines to all parts of the West. Great lines equipped 
with fine coaches and fast horses ran eastward to Denver, 
Independence, Atchison and St. Joseph and westward to 
Sacramento; while less pretentious stages went to the towns 
of Southern Utah and the mining camps of Nevada, 
California, Idaho and Montana. During the month of June, 
1855, the Deseret News ran another interesting advertise- 
ment: 

"The subscriber begs leave to inform the citizens of Utah that 
the United States mail coach for passengers and parcels, will leave 
Hawkins Hotel in Great Salt Lake City every Thursday at 6:00 
A. M. and arrive at Manti every Saturday at 6:00 p. m. Will leave 
Manti every Monday at 6:00 a. m. and will arrive at Great Salt 
Lake City every Wednesday at 6:00 p. m. Passengers or parcels 
to Union, Draperville, Lehi, American Fork, Pleasant Grove, 
Springville, Payson, Nephi, Fort Ephraim, and Manti, will be 
carried on reasonable terms. John Daily." 

We can reach Chicago now from Salt Lake more quickly 
than they could reach Manti before the railroads came. 

We who read at our breakfast tables the news of what 
happened in London the evening previous, can scarcely 
imagine what it was to live in Utah before the coming of the 
telegraph and the railroad. While it ran, the pony express 
carried letters at amazing speed, but only the most impor- 
tant mail came by that expensive process. By far the larger 



40 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 

part came by stage, when it came at all. The early files 
of the newspapers are filled with complaints of the loss of 
mail and the abandonment of the mail sacks en route. It 
was no uncommon thing for heavy snows or high water to 
cause the stage driver to unload his mail sacks on the plains 
of Wyoming, hoping to pick them up a few months later 
when the roads were better. It was still worse with freight. 
The big freight outfits left the Missouri River points every 
spring as soon as the grass was high enough to furnish 
pasture and in the course of the summer arrived at Salt 
Lake. That was the only stock the merchant received 
during the year and if the supply was exhausted before you 
got around to do your shopping, you had to wait until the 
next year to get your hat or frock. Livingston and Kinkead, 
Gentiles from St. Louis, ran a large store in Salt Lake in 
those early days. They advertise in the Deseret News of 
August, 1855, as follows: 

''Our first train of forty-six wagons, loaded with a very full and 
general assortment of new goods, will arrive here about the 15th 
instant, and we shall be prepared to open and offer for inspection 
and sale, a complete assortment of all the various goods in our line 
and at present in demand." 

A community so isolated was naturally thrown upon its 
own resources for the necessaries of life. Since it was so 
hard to buy most things, the people had to make them, or, 
if this was impossible, they had to make substitutes. The 
men wore buckskin trousers and shirts and their sisters 
and mothers spun yarn and made mitts of wool or dressed 
the hides of beavers and made fine dress gloves. The women 
spun their own wool dresses, and men, women and children 
wore moccasins more than boots or shoes. Naturally, the 
first factories to be built were sawmills and gristmills. 
Tanning was begun in 1850, and by 1853 shoes were being 
made in Salt Lake City. This industry has developed into 



LIFE BEFORE THE RAILROAD CAME 41 

the shoe factory of Z. C. M. L, which is the largest and most 
complete west of St. Louis. Necessity is the mother of 
invention, as Richard Margetts proved in 1855, when he 
made from old wagon tires a machine for extracting the 
juice from sugar cane. From that time molasses became 
a staple article of diet and the industry has grown until 



THE SMELTER AT TOOELE 

now Utah is the third state in the Union in production of 
sugar. Salt was needed always, and as early as 1847 the 
people would journey to the shores of the lake and obtain 
it by boiling the water in huge kettles. This was the begin- 
ning of the salt industry of to-day. From 1852 on, salt was 
shipped to California. The freighter would take a load of 
salt and bring back a load of manufactured goods or a drove 
of horses. As early as 1855 some of the great deposits of 
iron ore in Iron County were drawn upon and nails were 



42 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 

made, but not in quantities sufficient to supply the needs of 
the territory. Indeed, the great Tabernacle was built 
without the use of a single nail. A paper mill was built at 
the mouth of Cottonwood Canyon, but the industry soon 
died for lack of pulp timber to support it. The woolen mill 
at Provo, built in 1870, had a more prosperous career and 
is still flourishing. The following advertisement from the 




BUILDING THE TABERNACLE 

Deseret News of May, 1862, will show how ambitious the 
pioneers were to built up home industry: 

"Ye People of Deseret, Read This: James Shelmerdine begs 
to inform the public that if they really feel determined to encourage 
home manufactures, let them bring their beaver, wolf, fox, rabbit 
and other furs to his hat manufactory on Emigration Street two and 
a half blocks east of East Temple Street, and get in exchange good, 
home made hats of good quaUty." 

The theatres and schools deserve special mention. Though 
most of this little history deals with the material struggles 



LIFE BEFORE THE RAILROAD CAME 



43 



of the Mormon pioneers — their daily fight with the elements 
for food and shelter and raiment — we should be sorry to 
leave the impression that this was the whole of their aim 




INTERIOR VIEW OF TEMPLE GROUNDS. SALT LAKE CITY 



and the sum of their efforts. Nor do we mean to speak of 
their strong religious life in this connection. Besides their 
religious activities they worked earnestly to improve the 
minds and raise the ideals of old as well as young. For 
the mature, they founded the Social Hall and the Theatre, 
both to provide needful amusement, but both having the 
high aim of training the people of Utah to appreciate the 
best in dramatic art. And they succeeded well. The 
veteran theatre manager of New York, M. B. Leavitt, in 



44 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTOHY OF UTAH 

his recent book, ''Fifty Years of Theatrical Management," 
bears testimony to their success in these words: 

''Sweeping as the statement may seem, I do not believe that the 
theatre has ever rested upon a higher plane, both as to its purpose 
and its offerings, than at Salt Lake City, the capital of 
Mormondom." 

For the children, the Mormons founded schools. The 
story of the growth of education in Utah is very pathetic. 
In the beginning there was no money and teachers taught 
simply for the love of teaching and a sense of duty. Their 
salary at times was a few bushels of wheat or a sack or two 
of flour. The state is full of these men and women who have 
given their lives to the cause of education. Clarissa Brown- 
ing opened a school in Ogden in 1849. She had brought 
with her across the plains a bundle of old newspapers which 
she cut up and made into readers for the pupils. Her first 
month's salary was a large piece of buckskin, which she made 
into gloves and sold to the passing gold-seekers. The school 
was conducted in her little cabin, but in the winter of 1850- 
51 it had to be moved into the Bowery, it had grown so 
large. Here the children and teacher gathered about a 
large campfire and made shift to learn a great deal from 
their old newspaper readers. Sarah Pearson Richards is 
another name that should be cherished by the school chil- 
dren of Utah. She was a refined woman from Massachu- 
setts, who crossed the plains with one of the first companies 
of emigrants. She organized the school in a wagon, which 
was set apart for that purpose, and heard classes while 
jolting along over the great trail. Lydia Stanley taught the 
first school in Davis County. It was a true open air school, 
though not so elaborate as those which the city of Chicago 
is now establishing. It was held in a little brush house 
and, since there was no stove and they dared not build an 



LIFE BEFORE THE RAILROAD CAME 



45 



open fire in such an inflammable hut, they did without a 
fire, except on the coldest days of winter. On such days 
they built a large fire outside and any pupil who could no 
longer bear the cold within, could get permission to go out 
and warm up. 

The first school in Utah was opened in the Old Fort, in 




BRIGHAM YOUNG'S SCHOOL 

Northeast Corner of South Temple and State 



Salt Lake City, a little more than three months after the 
arrival of the pioneers. Mary Jane Dilworth was the first 
teacher and the schoolhouse was an old military tent. The 
pioneers had brought a number of school books with them, 
including copies of the old Lindley readers and Webster's 
blue-backed spelling book. The pupils had no paper, but 
they made shift to dry bark and to find colored clay with 
which to write and draw. The teacher's desk was an old 



46 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 

campstool and the pupils' desks were hewn logs. Miss 
Dilworth was a good teacher and did much for the boys 
and girls in that little primitive school. With her Julian 
Moses taught a school and organized it into divisions some- 
what as we grade schools to-day. He required all the pupils 
to bring a copy of the Bible, holding that it was the best 
book from which to learn good English. 

We have gone a long way from those conditions. Not a 
child who reads this book but goes to school in a better 
building than the best that the children had in those days. 
Some of the handsomest school buildings in the country 
are to be found in Utah and such buildings are being con- 
structed more profusely year by year. Our expenditures 
in the cause of education are infinitely greater than they 
were in the early days; but in earnestness, ambition, desire 
to accomplish something worthy, and thorough application, 
we could probably learn from those who lived when it was 
a trying task to go to school. 

We shall close this review of life in early Utah with two 
echoes from the past. The first is from Captain Stansbury 
of the United States Engineering Corps, who spent a winter 
in Salt Lake City in 1850, while engaged in surveying Great 
Salt Lake and mapping routes for a transcontinental railroad : 

"Our quarters were a small adobe house, unfurnished and un- 
plastered, and roofed with boards loosely nailed on. Every time it 
stormed all the pans and buckets in the establishment had to be 
set down to receive the numerous Uttle streams which came trickling 
in from every crack and knothole. We received from the citizens 
of the community every kindness that the warmest hospitality 
could dictate and no effort was spared to render us as comfortable 
as their own limited means would admit. Many families were still 
obliged to lodge in their wagons, which, being covered, served to 
make bedrooms, of limited dimensions it is true, but yet very 
comfortable. Many of these wagon boxes were large and when 



THE NEW UTAH 47 

taken off the wheels and set upon the ground, they made an ad- 
ditional apartment or back building to the small cabin. In the 
enclosure next to that occupied by our party a whole family of 
children had no other shelter than one of these wagons, where they 
slept all winter, hterally out of doors." 

The second quotation is a very chatty letter from Franklin 
D. Richards, under date of 18'),'): 

"The California mail arrived yesterday. Our settlements are 
prospering everywhere and the health of the people is good. Brother 
Huntington has returned from his trip among the Navajos. He 
found the ruins of an ancient city, some of the buildings in a good 
state of preservation, four stories high, and the rocks laid in cement. 
Last Tuesday evening. Chief Justice Kinney made an extensive 
party at the Union Hall and invited the Presidency, the Twelve, 
and many other principal citizens to participate. Col. Steptoe, 
of the Army of the United States, and his officers were present. 
The hall was crowded. Judge Kinney, who, by the way, is a 
Presbyterian, danced for the first time in his hfe. He furnished 
the whole party with a splendid supper. The great word 
"UNION" w^as formed on the side of the wall with cedar 
boughs. The company was composed of ecclesiastical, judicial 
and military officials to the number of two hundred fift}-. The 
members of the Legislature will give a party in the Social Hall on 
Monday night. It will be a splendid affair. Eleven officers of 
the United States Army, as well as the United States Territorial 
Officers, are invited to be present. The New Council House is 
enclosed and makes a splendid appearance. The IMusic Hall in 
Provo is finished and the first party assembled there at Christmas." 



THE NEW UTAH 

The advent of the railroad and the telegraph wrought 
a great change in Utah. Since that time the picturesque 
pony express rider has taken to less exciting pursuits. The 
great freight wagons are now seen only in back yards or on 



48 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 

remote mountain roads. The old thoroughbrace stage has 
disappeared and its successor, the light covered wagon, 
carries passengers and mail only where the railroads do not 
run. The citizen of Salt Lake now hears the news of the 
world almost as soon as the resident of New York. No 




A VIEW IN MODERN SALT LAI^ 



longer are we content to buy our frocks and hats annually or 
biennially. The latest fashions appear in Salt Lake as 
regularly and almost as early as in New York. Everything 
has changed save the unchanging climate. The sun shines 
as constantly as ever; the wind blows as gently as before; 
the cool, light air which we breathe is as delightful and 
invigorating as it was to the Pioneers. But the valleys have 
become gardens, and even the deserts are changing to fruitful 



THE NEW UTAH 



49 



farms, for immense reservoirs and canals have been built 
in recent years and millions of acres are watered now. 
Even the mountains are changed, for they have been pierced 
with railroad and irrigation tunnels; their canyons now 




CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL, SALT LAKE CITY 



60 CHIEF EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF UTAH 

carry well-graded roads and picturesque summer resorts; 
their sides have been torn open to furnish limestone for the 
smelters and cement factories, sandstone and granite for 
building, or ingress to the wealth of gold, silver, lead, copper, 




SALT DESERT WEST OF GREAT SALT LAKE 
Western Pacific Railroad 



iron and coal that has so long been locked up in their rocky 
depths. 

Most remarkable of all is the change that has come in 
the character of the population. The railroad brought in 
the Gentile — the hustling business man from the East. 
He was not content to sit down quietly on a little irrigated 
farm and grow old tranquilly in the simple life of the farmer. 
He opened up the mountain sides and exposed the treasures 
hidden in the rocks. He built railroads into the remote 
parts of the mountains to haul out the ore from the mines. 



THE NEW UTAH 51 

PIo built smelters and huge business blocks. He turned 
real estate boomer and advertised the resources of Utah 
far and wide. Through him, everyone, no matter what his 
race or religion, was urged to come to Utah. Before the 
coming of the railroad the population of Utah was almost r«P 
exclusively Mormon. Since the railroads came, people 
of every faith have come and all have added strength. The 
religious rancor that once prevailed has largely disappeared 
and now we have a various but harmonious population work- 
ing energetically to build up our state. 

See how far we have come in so short a time. The white 
man settled here in 1847. Since that time, the desert has 
been reclaimed; cities have spring up along the trail of the 1 
irapper; schoolhouses, theatres, libraries and churches now \ 
stand where the Indian wigwam once stood; mills and fac- 
tories are planted along the streams where the beavers once 
made their dams. We are going farther — much farther; and 
the children who now read this book will soon be the men and 
women upon whom will rest the responsibility of carrying 
forward the good work so well begun. May God bless them 
and help them to be as brave and earnest as the Pioneers. 



OCT 14 1912 



